Belt or Suspenders

[Cedarman]

Ever since I came down with Dunlop disease, I have been wearing suspenders when working.

[scsmith42]

I wear braces, (suspenders with buttons) to keep my britches up and a loose belt to hold the multitool.

Same here.
Bailey's "Wild Ass" jeans can be ordered with buttons, and wearing a belt too keeps the suspenders from digging into anything.

The brand that I like the most is S-penders from loggersuspenders.
com.  Great quality product.

[DFILER2]

I wear the Perry style also, they clip to the belt, I couldn't find clip on suspenders that wouldn't come loose. Having that strap come flying up in front of me was too un-nerving. 

[Raider Bill]

I've been partial to Prison Blues Jeans. Also have buttons and are a bit cheaper than the rest and every bit as good a quality.
"made on the inside for life on the outside" by the Oregon State prison.
I like the Y braces.

[farmfromkansas]

I wear the perry style, they are sold at walmart.  Wife used to work there.  Clip on always come loose, used to use the clip style on my work belt with bag.  Always coming loose.  Hate the way my shoulders feel after a tough day of work, but my belly got too big for my belt, and my hips seem to have shrunk.  This getting old is not for sissies.

[tree-farmer]

Suspenders for the last 5 or 6 years. Wife says it makes me look like a old man, I ask her, "what's your point"?

[SwampDonkey]

A review on suspenders. ;)

Welch suspenders - YouTube

[Chuck White]

I traded my belt in for suspenders following my umbilical hernia surgery 1½ years ago, but went right back to the belt after about a month or so!

Couldn't cope with the pulling on the shoulders and so many times the snaps would unclip!

[Old Greenhorn]

A review on suspenders. ;)

Well, there you have it then! Nice simple review. I wish they put buttons on more pants. I had to buy rivet buttons and put them on my chainsaw pants. The mfg provided little loops which I imagine were to use with clip ons or hook type. Not a huge fan of those in heavy work conditions, as Mr. White observed. I have been whacked int eh face by a flying clip a time or two and it is not pleasant.  :D

[Raider Bill]

A review on suspenders. ;)

Well, there you have it then! Nice simple review. I wish they put buttons on more pants. I had to buy rivet buttons and put them on my chainsaw pants. The mfg provided little loops which I imagine were to use with clip ons or hook type. Not a huge fan of those in heavy work conditions, as Mr. White observed. I have been whacked int eh face by a flying clip a time or two and it is not pleasant.  :D

I believe those are called bachelor buttons.
I bought a bag of 50 few years ago.

[Dan_Shade]

Any comments on bachelor buttons scratching furniture? 

I've joined the "suspenders while working" club and am not a fan of the clip style. 

[Old Greenhorn]

Here's another fun old thread brought back to life. I generally don't sit in nice furniture when I have work pants on and I only have button on work pants. I guess I never thought about it much. I have altered my habit and often now wear both. The belt I need for folding knife, tape measure and cell phone. But the braces do a better job of holding up my pants. I too do not like the clip jobs, they always seem to come off. But the Woodmiser ones I have seem to be doing better than most with the clips. Lately I mostly like the braces that don't have much elastic hve have buckles, rather than sliders so they hold where they are set. The ones with the elastic and sliders on them seem to need resetting during the day. I find that annoying.

[barbender]

I wear both, I need the belt to mount my Leatherman, flashlight, and tape measure.
The suspenders are Holdup Suspender Company, the clip has a pin and they don't let go. 





 I also like this for tape measures, it hangs on your belt and the tape clips to it. When I clip the tape to my pocket, it is constantly getting knocked off as I am in and out of the skid steer, or crawling on the ground fixing something. They still get bumped off on occasion, but not nearly as often- and I feel it, so I can pick the tape up. 

[Magicman]

Thank you bb for the Holdup Suspender tip.  I ordered the "trucker" style in denim.

[Old Greenhorn]

I haven't seen those type clips before now, might consider them. But as I said, I just have too much bad history with clips. Not to say that I don't still use them because I have more than a few sets, but what I do now is I set the clip over the belt and pants and they seem to bite and hold better. I don't have buttons on everything, so the clips still get used. I'll have to take a look at those, but I am not sure about adding another set of clips with all the 'pants hangers' I already have. :D

[Brad_bb]

As you get fat, you become thicker on top than below, so a belt will never work unless it digs in and is uncomfortable.  Even then the pants will usually work down.  

I've worn braces for more than 10 years now.  Suspenders with the metal clips come off all the time, though I've never tried the ones barbender posted with the spike.  Braces use bachelor buttons on your pants.  I wear Tactical BDU pants from Propper.com.  They are loose enough for a big guy and comfortable with two big leg pockets for gloves or tape measure.  When I get them I use some ripstop fabric and fold to get 2 layers in 1.25" square and sew them with strong zig zag stiching where the bachelor buttons will go.  I pierce a hole with an awl and install Bailey's Wild Ass Bachelor Buttons. They're better than all the others I have tried-stronger. I use Y-back Better S-Penders.  My mom made fun of me the most for a number of years, but the comfort is worth it and your pants not falling down is far more important.  Occasionally you'll get a bachelor button break but they are pretty easy to put a new one on using the red holder tool.  I found this pic on ebay, but I don't see that tool in results like I used to.  Very hard to find.  You use it to hold and align the button with the pin and hit it with a hammer to press them together.  Without it, very difficult to align them and hit them.

 

The Better S-penders leather is very stiff at first.  I use leather conditioner and after the first 5 wearings or so they get softer.  Washing in the machine might help too.  You want them strong so they won't ever let go, but you need them pliable enough that you don't have issues putting them on on and off pants to wash.  I don't generally wear pants in warm weather, just too hot for me.  But cool weather here in indiana is 7-8 months of the year.

[barbender]

 I'd tried several different clip on style, some were guaranteed not to come loose but they all did. Usually when I was bent over in the middle of lifting something, and to add insult to injury the loose strap would usually slingshot over my shoulder and the metal clip hit me I  the back of the head!😡😂 I found those Hold Ups, and the only time I've had those let loose is if I snag the clip on something and actually open it. That has happened only 2 or 3 times. 

 I'm 1/4 Native, one of the traits that was passed on to me in that is what is referred to "indian a$$", which is another way of saying you don't have one😬 At all. One of my friends used to say, it couldn't even be called a butt, so he called it the "top of my legs"😂 So yeah, as I get bigger up top, coupled with the lack of anything for my pants and belt to hang on to, my suspenders get a good workout😊

[B.C.C. Lapp]

I wear dickies canvass work pants pretty much every day all the time.   For me dressed up is a newer clean pair with no patches or stains. :D   I put bachelor  buttons on all of them and wear suspenders.   They hold up he weight of wedge pouches and logging tape much better than a belt.

[Peter Drouin]

barbender, I know just what you mean. When I take off my suspenders off, my pants fall to the floor without undoing the belt. :D ;)

[47sawdust]

Both for me as well.
The belt and suspenders are from Duluth trading.
W/O the suspenders it is embarrassing 

 

 

[GRANITEstateMP]

I just ordered a Contractor set of the Holdup brand that barbender is fond of.  If they work as good for me as they do for him, I'll be happy.  The belt I use is an UncleMikes, it's beefed up with a piece of metal/tin down the middle and helps keep the belt rigid when carrying concealed.  Even when not carrying, it helps stiffen the belt.  I don't think the tab will penetrate that belt, so I'll have to aim real good to get the pants!  If this one works, I may try a pair of there plastic grabber style also.

I used a standard pair of suspenders whenever I am doing over the wall dutys in racing. More than once after stepping over pit wall, I've felt a clasp let go and just hope I can get the car fueled up without mooning my own team!

[Resonator]

Depends. (Old Bob Dole joke). :D 

[barbender]

 Granite, maybe you can get the race team to foot the bill for the Holdups? It's in their best interest, after all?😂

 Years back, I worked with an old trucker, a veteran of the Dalton Highway up in Alaska. He was an owner/operator of a dump truck when I worked with him on the paving crew. Anyhow, this skinny ol' trucker always seemed to have about 4" of butt crack hanging out (hence the nickname, "B.C."). There would be a bunch of guys in a pile of asphalt shoveling away and I'd see some grimaces, and guys looking to the side. I'd be wondering what the problem was, then unfortunately my gaze would come to B.C. with his back turned, nearly his whole hind end exposed for the world to see😬 We'd give him a hard time, but he'd just laugh and laugh, "heh heh heh!", the ol trucker laugh😂
 
 Well, all of our harassment must've finally gotten to him, because one spring he showed up with a custom safety vest. He took his new vest for the year, and had his wife sew the tail off of his old vest on the back of it. So it had a nice long tail that hung about halfway to the back of his knees. That saved all of us from having to view the B.C., and he said he was still able to get a nice cooling breeze back there😂

 With all of that said, I don't know why we didn't just buy him some suspenders😊

 B.C. passed on about 7 years ago. He was a good friend, and a real character. I miss him all the time, they don't make em like ol B.C. anymore. He was a good man.

[SawyerTed]

Then there's the old joke about taking Azzatal pills.

They must work because I have no azz at all.  

Badumdum

[Magicman]

My Great Grandmother was Cherokee so I also have a case of da goneass.  My Holdups have shipped but no delivery date yet.